Ehm. Maws. And Stealth Battleships.

[Shrugging Khan]

Sooooo, let's say you want to attack a planet belonging to an AI with Spire Maws. Or you're just being attacked by that AI. You have a cap of mkI and mkII Stealth Battleships.

Within seconds, those will have been swallowed. If the Maws in Question are sufficiently high-level, they'll take quite a while to take apart - and you don't even know which ones contain the SBs


So I'm wondering, is this intentional, this maw-eats-low-cap-big-ships-hah-hah-why-did-you-even-build-them?

[TechSY730]

Can maws eat "real" starships? If so, I don't really see an issue with this per-say, though the balance of the maws might need to be double checked keeping the ability to swallow starships in mind.

If they cannot eat "real" starships, then there is a problem. If expensive, low cap units of one class of ships cannot be targeted by them, then presumably there is a good balance reason for it. Because many of the low cap spire fleet ships are balanced like starships, the same reasoning should apply to them too.

[Fleet]

So I'm wondering, is this intentional, this maw-eats-low-cap-big-ships-hah-hah-why-did-you-even-build-them?

That does sound like the typical AI superiority complex. Or maybe I'm thinking of the devs sadistic tendencies when introducing new features. I forget who gives life to who.

[Shrugging Khan]

They can't eat classic starships.

My obvious suggestion would be to make them swallow-able only by disassemblers, rather than maws, but I'd really like to have a word from someone who knows the whole story.

[Orelius]

Speaking of which, are maws able to swallow maws?  By this swallowing logic, I think they should.

[TechSY730]

Speaking of which, are maws able to swallow maws?  By this swallowing logic, I think they should.

To prevent recursive nightmares such as this, maws have wisely been given swallow immunity (I think)
I pretty sure that star disassembler guardians do as well.

[Shrugging Khan]

Alright. This is another game down the drain, the SBs are completely and utterly useless. There's one to five maws at every guard post, they have too much health to be killed quickly, and even with a fighter screen (which is so much of a hassle to bring, it basically makes the whole affair worthless anyways) they seem to prioritise the SBs. They even swallow the SBs when the latter are under an FF, so for focks sake!

And I even had an armoured golem on the map!

[TechSY730]

Alright. This is another game down the drain, the SBs are completely and utterly useless. There's one to five maws at every guard post, they have too much health to be killed quickly, and even with a fighter screen (which is so much of a hassle to bring, it basically makes the whole affair worthless anyways) they seem to prioritise the SBs. They even swallow the SBs when the latter are under an FF, so for focks sake!

And I even had an armoured golem on the map!

Five maws on a guard post?! I thought they were supposed to be limited to like 2 per guard post (per maw Mk level).
There may be some remaining issues with the AI and guard post limitations. Do you still have that save and/or map settings and seed?

EDIT: Yep, there are still issues, http://www.arcengames.com/forums/index.php/topic,8488.0.html

[Shrugging Khan]

Even with two, the problem persists.

Consider: You have a maximum of 18 SBs (mkIV included); how long does it take two maws to swallow 18 ships?

[TechSY730]

Even with two, the problem persists.

Consider: You have a maximum of 18 SBs (mkIV included); how long does it take two maws to swallow 18 ships?

I agree, even with two there is a problem. The low ship cap fleet ships need to be non-targetable by maws. Only starship dissassemblers should be able to eat the big, expensive, limited in number stuff.

I was just pointing out your other issue (Maw spam) is not intended behaviour.

Sigh, how many bugs with the max per guard post logic and max per planet logic has that been by now? Unless these limitations are firm, very low ship cap stuff will be completely broken in AI hands.

[Sunshine!]

Why not just make a flat cap of one low-cap spire fleetship (of any mark) per guard post.  Increase to 2 when the AIP hits a certain floor based on AIP.  3 when it hits another certain floor based on AIP.

Also, Spire Maws should probably not be able to eat anything that has immunity to Fusion Cutters for reasons of high health, to prevent these problems.